India and Pakistan aborted rare talks on their festering conflict in Kashmir this weekend under a cloud of recriminations, while on the front line, villagers cowering from artillery in mud huts despair of ever seeing lasting peace

India and Pakistan aborted rare talks on their festering conflict in Kashmir this weekend under a cloud of recriminations, while on the front line, villagers cowering from artillery in mud huts despair of ever seeing lasting peace.

Pakistan's National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz called off a trip to New Delhi for a planned "ice-breaking" meeting on Sunday with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval at the last minute amid a row over the agenda for the talks.

The cancellation dashed hopes of an imminent breakthrough in the nuclear-armed neighbors' long-fraught relations.

Shelling across the de facto border, known as the Line of Control (LoC) in disputed Kashmir, has been on the rise this month, with several civilians killed.

The Himalayan region has been divided between India and Pakistan, but claimed in full by both, since the two countries gained independence from Britain in 1947.

Nahra, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, just 400 meters (440 yards) from Indian army positions, is one of the worst affected villages, where locals say they were hit by shells almost every day last week.

With no proper bunkers in which to take cover from mortars, residents are forced to hide in their mud-brick houses.